According to the article Seattle Underbelly Exposed as Homeless Violence Flares by Kirk Johnson, a homeless camp is making Seattle headlines. The homeless camp known as “the jungle”, is the largest camp in the city and is well-known. The reason for this is because over four thousand homeless men and women inhabit it. The camp is surrounded by trash and dirt, and the living conditions are terrible. However, the cleanliness of the area is the least of the problems people face there. Within the past five years, the Jungle has requested law enforcement over 820 times. There has been 70 violent incident crimes, 500 emergency medical calls and 250 fires. Camp resident Darrel Sutton explains that ha has been assaulted twice, and has since always watched his back. He explained that he never feels safe at the camp, but he has nowhere else to go. The locals of the city have stated that they think te camp is an embarrassment, and cannot believe the city allows the “human wasteland” to exist. The area is so dangerous that fire fighters cannot not even enter the area to relinquish a fire without a police escort. Many believe that the camp needs to be eliminated and the people removed. In fact, city officials are planning to create an 8000 foot chain link fence around the area so that homeless people cannot enter. However, Mayor Murray has a different idea, one that consists of building an authorized camping area for the homeless. While reading this article, i could not help but notice that the locals and city officials blame the homeless people for the jungle, and not themselves. They do not consider the ways they can help the people who live there, just themselves. I do not believe that building a fence will help the issue, but instead make the issue more apparent since all 4000 people will have to relocate all over the city. Hopefully the city does in fact create the authorized camping area for the homeless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/us/seattle-homeless-jungle-camp.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHomeless%20Persons&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=U.S.&action=keypress®ion=FixedLeft&pgtype=article
Hey Rebecca,
I posted about The Jungle a dew months ago when there was a shooting that brought attention to the issue of homelessness in Seattle. It seems that Mayor Murray is taking action towards ending homelessness in Seattle, because it has gotten out of hand. I think that in making new policies and programs it would be important for Murray to take into account more permanent affordable housing solutions. I live just 45min south of Seattle and have recently witnessed the population increase because everyone is moving to my city for the cheaper housing options.